First class since rape scandal arrives at Air Force Academy

Posted: Friday, June 27, 2003

The Associated Press

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - With tears and hugs for their parents, nearly 1,300 nervous teenagers arrived at the Air Force Academy on Thursday, the first new class since the school was plunged into a rape scandal.

Alumni hall looked like any other college scene where parents drop off their teenagers to live away from home, many for the first time. Then the cadets, called "basics" by upperclassmen, got on buses for a short ride to the main complex of dormitories and classroom buildings.

"Take a final look at your friends and family, basics. Gaze behind you. If I tell you to look, you look," cadet Kent Childers told them during the ride. "Do not look around. Look at the back of the head in front of you. Only speak if you're spoken to, and then only say, 'Yes, sir' or 'No sir."'

But there was none of the yelling or intimidation of previous years. And there will be little or no physical training during the first four days, another change from the past. The new strategy is to reduce stress in the first four days to give the new cadets a chance to better absorb information on military law, sexual assault, gender sensitivity and other issues.

Most of the classroom work that previously had been scattered throughout basic training will be consolidated into those four days. After that, basic training will look more traditional.

"They're just as scared as we were; they don't know we can't yell at them," said junior cadet Matthew Adkins. After orientation, "we'll wake them up pounding on doors."

The academy has been in turmoil since February, when female cadets complained that their allegations of sexual assault or abuse were downplayed and that they were punished for making reports.

The academy's four top commanders have been replaced, and investigations are still under way.

Several incoming cadets said they were more worried about the five-week basic training regimen than issues surrounding sexual assault.